Transcription

 262
116          Runs Overstocked During Dry & Parched Seasons

to leave their habitations encamping in tents.

The failure of early occupied grazing country during dry and parched seasons, has been particularly felt in the Cattle grazing districts, situated in the low country to the westward of the great northern Cordillera, while on the main or Sea Coast ranges, the runs of the settlers during these seasons have suffered lots. The Cattle runs are what may [may] be termed large, considering the number of Cattle grazing on them, but when we consider the nature of the climate, combined with the occasional dry & parched, interveening [intervening] the drooping seasons, without any attempt to improve other sheep or Cattle runs, by sowing fresh grass seeds, nor rest to allows the runs time to seed themselves, we need not be suspicious at deterioration of the runs, the effects of the seasons upon the pasture nor at the fatal effects upon the stock.

The distribution of live stock throughout the various Districts of New South Wales on the 1st of January 1854 is shown by the following table

Estimated Average Rate of Increase of Sheep Ten Per Cent

  Horses Horned Cattle Sheep
Albert 271 1,357 49,733
Bligh 2,126 75,839 248,776
Burnett 1,260 20,200 590,000
Clarence River 2,234 117,389 119,263
Darling Downs 2,933 59,385 906,601
Groyder 2,606 136,788 196,366
Laukland 4,435 92,970 300,961
Liverpool Plains 4,209 82,878 478,263
Lower Darling 300 22,485 120,000
McLeay River 1,289 16,633 130
Maveroo 5,209 90,630 413,933
Maranova 457 21,155 13,500
Morston 1,248 29,049 376,795
Murrumbidgie 6,325 135,360 670,840
New England 5,628 104,054 1,020,444
Wellington 2,570 70,160 314,600
Wide Bay 294 7,504 68,702
Current Status: 
Ready for review